Better Than Revenge
by chewinggumandpencils
Summary: A one-shot based off of Taylor Swift's song Better Than Revenge. Told in Hermione's POV. Part of my ongoing project to write a one-shot for every song on the Speak Now album. Rated T because I'm paranoid.


_A/N: Hey guys! *ducks flying objects* I'm sorry this took so long! *ducks more flying objects* I'M SORRY, OK? I had a lot of trouble with this one. I just couldn't get it in character and it just didn't feel right. I finally managed to get it to a point that I feel good about it. So, here it is! It's in Hermione's POV and takes place in their sixth year._

_J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling is a billionaire. I am not a billionaire, therefore I don't own Harry Potter. Got it?_

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><p>I was getting sick of it.<p>

Having to share a dormitory with Lavender Brown had never been fun, but lately I was ready to hex her to oblivion.

Of course, she spent every night telling the other girls exactly what she and Ron did that day.

I never thought she'd actually do it. She'd spent years talking about him and Harry, how they were the only two decent blokes in our year. I didn't think she had the nerve. After all, he was one of MY two best friends. I was the one who had been there for him all this time. He'd snuck into a spider pit in order to help me! I had everything perfectly set up. I'd finally realized the obvious: I loved him. And I had a feeling he felt the same way towards me, whether he knew it or not.

But no, I'd let him go ahead that November day. I was mad at him and Harry, though mostly at him. We'd been bickering for a while, as I was unable to stop myself. Ever since I realized how much I loved him, I didn't know how to act.

So I bickered with him. But I had it all in place.

Then I let him leave alone, let her find him. She stole him from me faster than I could say "sabotage". I walked into the Gryffindor common room to find them sucking each others' faces off.

I should have seen it coming. She did always talk about him, after all.

She always shot glances at me when she talked about him, a cruel smile on her lips. She knew what she was doing. Occasionally she would whisper something about me, never true, yet vague enough to sound realistic.

Harry was the first one to find me. It wasn't surprising and I wasn't upset to see him. I knew he partially understood, that he was starting to fall for Ginny and knew how it felt seeing her with another guy. Then Ron had to walk in, of course. That was one of two times that I actually snapped. I attacked him, sent the birds I conjured flying at him with a simple Oppugno. I left right afterwards. I couldn't stand looking at him.

Ginny was the second (and last) one to find me. I guess those two really are a good match. Very few people are good enough and know me enough to find me (even if Harry found me by accident). I was in the owlery, the only place I could think of to get away. I figured the chances of them wanting to send a letter now where probably around zero. They wouldn't come snog in such a public place. So I went to the owlery and hid there. Ginny found me about fifteen minutes after I got there.

She took one look at me and pulled me into a hug. I started bawling. I don't know how long we sat there, her holding me and me crying. Eventually, I stopped crying and she sat next to me, both of us quiet.

Of course, Ginny was the one to break the silence.

"I wonder what Lavender would look like without any hair."

I burst out laughing at the mental image. Ginny looked proud of herself, but I spoke.

"We really shouldn't think of prank ideas. I spent years yelling at your brothers to stop playing pranks. It'd be a bit hypocritical of me." Ginny shrugged and we settled into a comfortable silence.

"A little Polyjuice Potion, a Silencio charm, and a stunning spell would be great for a midnight scare."

Ginny looked over at me, shocked. She started laughing.

"Hermione, I didn't know you had it in you." she said with a grin.

And that's how it started. After I came up with that idea, it was like a faucet had been turned out. The ideas just kept coming.

"We could always use a Permanent Sticking Charm to glue googly eyes to her forehead. You know, since she's all googly for Ron anyway."

"Or imagine her as a canary. I could get a Canary Cream from the twins easily. Or, you know, I heard about a spell that will leave your hair as it is, but add an afro as well. So it stays long and normal, but then you also have an afro. That with a modified disillusionment charm could lead to a hilarious class."

Ginny and I kept going, coming up with crazier and crazier things, all things that I could actually pull off. We were both laughing hysterically by the end. If anyone had gone up there, they definitely would have thought we were drunk.

By the time I went to bed, I felt much better. It helped that Lavender was already asleep by the time I got back.

Every day I had to see them together. Every day. It was like Lavender was scared to spend a second away from Ron. Seeing them together would jar me back to my time with Ginny, to all the things we thought of. My hand would twitch towards my wand, the only sign of my desperation to actually carry one of those ideas out. But I always stopped myself, always told myself to wait until next time, to wait until I really couldn't bear it anymore.

I never actually did any of the things we came up with. Every few days, I would isolate myself and Ginny would find me. To his credit, Harry would have too, but I always went up to the girl's dormitories first and then disillusioned myself before I walked out. Ginny would find me and we would plan terrible, hilarious things to do to Lavender. We never actually did them, but it was nice to have the ideas, just in case.

Just in case I snapped.

I only snapped one other time.

It was the day before Slughorn's party, right before the winter holidays. I was up in the dormitory quite early that night, for the sole purpose of avoiding them.

Of course, she had to walk in before any of our other roommates managed to come upstairs.

She started fixing her makeup, not even acknowledging my presence. I was doing quite a good job of ignoring her when she had to speak up.

"You're pathetic, you know that, right?"

I turned to look at her, shocked. "Excuse me?"

"You're pathetic." she said, watching me through the mirror in front of her, "You think you still have a chance with him, when he so obviously loves me."

I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of her statement, though I'm sure she thought I was laughing at a different part than I actually was.

"What on earth makes you think that?"

She turned around to face me, makeup in hand.

"You can't even stand to be in the same room as him anymore. You really don't stand a chance. Besides, he'll never even consider an ugly thing like you." She eyed my outfit, grimacing.

I couldn't take it. Without thinking, I stalked up to her, dying to punch her. I barely stopped myself.

"You may think I'm just something for you to roll your eyes at." I said instead, "Yeah, you have him. However, just remember, I always get the last word."

With that, I stalked out of the room.

That episode, combined with the next day, made me include Ron into my revenge plan, in the one revenge plan I actually carried out. The look on his face when he heard about McLaggen was worth the (mostly figurative) pain involved in actually spending time with McLaggen. I knew that the point of it was to get back at Ron, that actually executing revenge on more than one person at a time was dangerous. But that day, I just had to. I had to see the look on her face when she realized he cared more about me going out with someone else than he cared about snogging her.

It was completely worth it.

And then I got the last word.

Literally.

For once, I didn't even think about hurting her. I was so worried about him, she didn't even cross my mind. Until she came storming in, that is. I could tell she was at her breaking point. I hadn't done anything, I wouldn't dare, but I knew Ron had been avoiding her. It didn't take a genius to see things were falling apart between them. And I could see how much it hurt her. But I didn't think about that then. No, I only thought about him.

I had no way of knowing the best form of revenge would soon take place.

He said my name. Not hers. Mine. I couldn't have planned it better if I had tried. Not only did I get my revenge, I got the guy.

I didn't have to look at her that night in the dormitory to know that I had won. Because, in the end, I'm better than her.

And there's nothing that I like better than revenge.

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><p><em>AN: So. What did you think? I hope it's ok. I want to thank jessielightyear, my wonderful beta, who helped me figure out how to fix this so that I'm happy with it._

_Thoughts? Comments? Want to feed my ego? Review! I'll love you forever!_

_Also, if you want to maybe influence which Speak Now one-shot I write next, there's a poll on my homepage!_


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